Day 4

Day 4

 

We got up so early there was no brekkie on offer for us. It did cross my mind that we would be extremely hungry by the time we got to Pentecost Island. We were being picked up from the resort at 5.45am to be taken to the airport for our flight to Pentecost Island. We weren’t even sure how big the plane was going to be.  Camera’s charged and ready to go!!!

 

The van turned up and in we got the only living soles around, they drove through a very dark Port Villa but strangely not entirely lacking people walking or was that stumbling through the streets. I must say I was rather glad to be in a fast moving van instead of on my feet!  We stopped off and picked up another couple our van driver telling us we would meet up with our guide and tickets at the airport. There is a tremendous amount of trust that you have to place into some events, like getting the tickets!!

 

Its getting a bit lighter by the time we get to the airport and there are more people about getting ready for other domestic flights to some of the other islands of Vanuatu. Met up with the tour guide and given our instructions to follow him and he will check on the flight. There are about 10 of us now. There was one couple there who came from French Polynesia and their whole reason for coming to Vanuatu was to see the land diving, imagine that just popping across islands just to see one event, not that we blame them for wanting to see this one event as it only happens once a year and only over a 2 month period.

Wikipedia describe it below 

According to local legend it began centuries ago when a beaten woman ran away from her husband, Tamale. He found her hiding in a tall tree and called to her that if she came down he might beat her. However if he had to get her she would be sorry. She refused. He climbed the tree and as he made his final grab, she leaped. In anguish at her death (or anger that he had missed her) Tamale jumped after her, not realising his wife had tied liana vines around her ankles and survived the fall. Tamale perished.

The ritual evolved over the years, to stripping a tall tree of its surrounding branches and building a tower of sticks to support the trunk. Platforms of woven leaves and branches are built into the platform and the liana vines, filled with water and very elastic following the wet season, are shredded at one end and tied to the tower at the other.

Men and boys, some as young as seven years, climb the tower and leap from the platforms in a show of strength and a statement to women that they can never be tricked again. It is also a fertility rite, for as the vines stretch, the land diver’s heads curl under and their shoulders touch the ground, making it fertile for the following year’s yam crop.

Every year, as soon as the first yam crop begins to show its green tips in early April, islanders in southern Pentecost begin building at least one huge wooden tower in each village, often as high as 23 m (75 ft). On one or two days from April to early June, men jump from these towers with only two long, elastic vines tied to their ankles to break the fall. While the jump has its origins in island mythology, Pentecosters believe jumping is necessary to guarantee a bountiful yam harvest, and the divers’ hair is meant to brush the ground to fertilise it.

The ground under the tower is tilled to soften the earth, and all rocks are removed. As each man psyches himself into the dive, his friends tie vines to his ankles, and when he raises his hands the people below stop their singing, dancing and whistling. Just before he dives, he tells the crowd his most intimate thoughts, which may include family and marital problems. Because these could be his last words, the women below remain silent, despite any public airing of family secrets.

Each diver claps his hands, crosses his arms over his chest and leans forward until he falls over the edge. When his body becomes horizontal, he jumps out as far as he can. This is the "trick" to surviving land diving. If the diver were to fall straight down, he would hit the ground before being restrained by the vines. The extra couple feet added to the dive by jumping out enable the ropes, which are measured precisely for this purpose, to pull back the diver. As he jerks to a stop, male relatives rush forward to help him untie his feet and stand him up as the crowd roars its approval.

 

So you see we were so excited about going to this event it was our once in a life time adventure come true and then we were told that Pentecost airport is closed, its only a grass runway and its been raining over there!! We weren’t going to be able to make the trip and wewouldn’t be around the following weekend to go then either.

 

There was a chance that we might be able to get over later in the day. The couple that had made the special trip were even more disappointed than us and at every wild suggestion that was being banded about they were more than keen to do, we however were not!!! Like flying to another airport at the other end of the island and driving for 3 hours to get to the Nagol people to see the land diving. Over what kind of roads and in what kind of weather was anyone’s guess. Then there was talk of being able to fly over but maybe no guarantee of getting out the same day and having to stay a the airport which from the expression on the guides face was not really an option as the airport was really just a landing strip and a shed and a trip he had done last time and not one he would recommend. So back to the resort to wait and find out if the trip would go ahead later in that day. It didn’t and so we missed our once in a life time opportunity of seeing the land diving, a big disappointment for us.

 

Never mind we got to go snorkeling again. So we swam and swam all over the lagoon 🙂 I got a bit cold and djd carried on for a bit. Gave me a chance to take a piccie of my littel snorkler

And he is just so cleaver cause not only did he find a wonderful live shell. We really didnt think they looked like they do when you buy them but here’s the proof that they do

and then on his way to putting the shell back into the lagoon he found my glasses I had lost the day before on the lagoon floor, can you believe that one in a million chance that you could just stumble around a huge lagoon you would find lost glasses!!!

Later we headed into town and on a Saturday afternoon everything is closed!! There was hardly anyone about. Only the local lads who were hanging about.

We decided to visit the island of Iririki which is in the harbour opposite Port Villa and only a 1 minute on a ferry across to it. We have such lovely memories of walking around this island and seeing the most amazing spiders hanging from webs between trees and beautiful views. The humidity was pretty stiffling though as the rain looked like it was coming in.

Pretty spectacular, but we were rather wary of what to expect after yesterdays visit to the other island. Unfortunately our worries became reality when this island has even more going on than the other much smaller one; there is some really major creation of parcels of land for future private building, with water, power being connected and another resort being built on the opposite end of the island to the existing resort!!

All those trees that held the spiders last time we came were gone, everything was being cleared for construction. We left the island extremely disillusioned with the so called progress that was happening. Its such a shame that money has obviously started to make an impact on Port Villa and construction work for bigger and brighter resorts is starting to happen but at the detriment of the native bush and sadly for the wildlife.

There were however some very lovely tiny flowers scattered about. Just wish I knew the names of them

Oh well tomorrow we are going to an island Lelepa. we haven’t been there before and it’s a bit further out than a short ferry ride, so hopefully not too spoiled by progress.

Quite night in as we had room service and sat outside to see a sky full of bright stars and the occasional shooting star zooming across the sky. All very romantic

Postnote

Having read this entry I wrote while on holiday it makes it sound like we had such a lousy day but really we still enjoyed our day, the heat was still there and we were still able to relax and enjoy each other. Funny what you focus on though for the happeni

ngs of a day.